Providing live broadcasts of content over a network, such as the Internet, is generally done in a very formulaic manner currently. Broadcasters record content via a third-party software application which transmits streaming content to a streaming server farm which takes the streamed content and transcodes it into various bit rates. The encoded content is then transmitted to a content delivery network (CDN) for provision to a plurality of end users via a streaming client.
Several problems exists with this model, including latency issues, lack of control over content, loss of quality and inability to provide content in high resolution formats and/or higher frame rates for live broadcast video content. Part of the issue is that video content must first be encoded before transmission to a streaming server farm for transcoding into the various bit rates.
This extra work introduces delays in time between the live broadcast and eventual delivery to the end user. Given the number of steps and the tack of control over processing, broadcasting delays are almost a guarantee in prior art systems, with average latency between live content and consumption by a consumer being in the range of 30-60 seconds. Similarly, buffering in prior art systems is in the order of 6-10 seconds per minute of content.
Therefore, there is need in the art for systems and methods for recording and encoding content in such a manner that the encoded content can be transmitted to a content delivery network (CDN) via a network for consumption by remote end users, wherein the encoded content does not suffer from the aforementioned issues. These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be explained and will become obvious to one skilled in the art through the summary of the invention that follows.